Information quality in social media : a conceptual model

Social Media (SM) is increasingly being integrated with business information in decision making. Unique characteristics of social media (e.g. wide accessibility, permanence, global audience, recentness, and ease of use) raise new issues with information quality (IQ); quite different from traditional considerations of IQ in information systems (IS) evaluation. This paper presents a preliminary conceptual model of information quality in social media (IQnSM) derived through directed content analysis and employing characteristics of analytic theory in the study protocol. Based in the notion of ‘fitness for use’, IQnSM is highly use and user centric and is defined as “the degree to which information is suitable for doing a specified task by a specific user, in a certain context”. IQnSM is operationalised as hierarchical, formed by the three dimensions (18 measures): intrinsic quality, contextual quality and representational quality. A research plan for empirically validating the model is proposed.

Recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments : are the rules appropriate?

The recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments is an aspect of private international law, and concerns situations where a successful party to litigation seeks to rely on a judgment obtained in one court, in a court in another jurisdiction. The most common example where the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments may arise is where a party who has obtained a favourable judgment in one state or country may seek to recognise and enforce the judgment in another state or country. This occurs because there is no sufficient asset in the state or country where the judgment was rendered to satisfy that judgment. As technological advancements in communications over vast geographical distances have improved exponentially in recent years, there has been an increase in cross-border transactions, as well as litigation arising from these transactions. As a result, the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments is of increasing importance, since a party who has obtained a judgment in cross-border litigation may wish to recognise and enforce the judgment in another state or country, where the defendant’s assets may be located without having to re-litigate substantive issues that have already been resolved in another court. The purpose of the study is to examine whether the current state of laws for the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments in Australia, the United States and the European Community are in line with modern-commercial needs. The study is conducted by weighing two competing objectives between the notion of finality of litigation, which encourages courts to recognise and enforce judgments foreign to them, on the one hand, and the adequacy of protection to safeguard the recognition and enforcement proceedings, so that there would be no injustice or unfairness if a foreign judgment is recognised and enforced, on the other. The findings of the study are as follows. In both Australia and the United States, there is a different approach concerning the recognition and enforcement of judgments rendered by courts interstate or in a foreign country. In order to maintain a single and integrated nation, there are constitutional and legislative requirements authorising courts to give conclusive effects to interstate judgments. In contrast, if the recognition and enforcement actions involve judgments rendered by a foreign country’s court, an Australian or a United States court will not recognise and enforce the foreign judgment unless the judgment has satisfied a number of requirements and does not fall under any of the exceptions to justify its non-recognition and non-enforcement. In the European Community, the Brussels I Regulation which governs the recognition and enforcement of judgments among European Union Member States has created a scheme, whereby there is only a minimal requirement that needs to be satisfied for the purposes of recognition and enforcement. Moreover, a judgment that is rendered by a Member State and based on any of the jurisdictional bases set forth in the Brussels I Regulation is entitled to be recognised and enforced in another Member State without further review of its underlying jurisdictional basis. However, there are concerns as to the adequacy of protection available under the Brussels I Regulation to safeguard the judgment-enforcing Member States, as well as those against whom recognition or enforcement is sought. This dissertation concludes by making two recommendations aimed at improving the means by which foreign judgments are recognised and enforced in the selected jurisdictions. The first is for the law in both Australia and the United States to undergo reform, including: adopting the real and substantial connection test as the new jurisdictional basis for the purposes of recognition and enforcement; liberalising the existing defences to safeguard the application of the real and substantial connection test; extending the application of the Foreign Judgments Act 1991 (Cth) in Australia to include at least its important trading partners; and implementing a federal statutory scheme in the United States to govern the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments. The second recommendation is to introduce a convention on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments. The convention will be a convention double, which provides uniform standards for the rules of jurisdiction a court in a contracting state must exercise when rendering a judgment and a set of provisions for the recognition and enforcement of resulting judgments.

If you build it... film studios and the transformative effects of migrating media production

In the years since the release of the film Field of Dreams, the phrase “If you build it, they will come” has become a cliché beloved by journalists, boosters of speculative land developments or remediations and misty-eyed enthusiasts of a host of unlikely schemes. It is one of the articles of faith of the location interest, the coalition of actors motivated to work to attract film business to a particular place. The phrase is full of optimism and potential. It seeks to instill confidence that the construction of production infrastructure like studios and the nourishment of conditions for local service providers will drive the (economic) locomotive and open the (celebrity) stargate. Unfortunately sometimes, it is just a crazy dream.

Write vs. type : tangible and situated media for situated engagement

Digital media is often criticised for being intangible, transient and ephemeral. These characteristics limit the provision of long-lasting social experiences, as it is through the use of all our senses that we attach meaning to space, creating a sense of place. This paper presents a comparative study of the affordances of two design interventions, one tangible paper-based, called Print + Talk = Love (PTL), the other digital screen-based, called Discussions in Space (DIS). The emphasis is on a) how tangible media, such as paper, provides different and meaningful collective experiences, and b) how it can stand on its own as an interactive design intervention and as a comprehensive data-gathering tool in urban public places. By positioning PTL and DIS within the context of urban public places and testing their abilities to engage participants, we examine their particular situated engagement abilities through a mixed method approach. As a result, the digital aspects of DIS, e.g., using Twitter, extend the situated experience beyond the actual location of the intervention. Moreover, informing a hybrid approach, we also found that the physical aspects of PTL and its tangible presence, kept the user experience focused on the actual place and event surrounding the intervention.

Vehicle-to-vehicle real-time relative positioning using 5.9 GHz DSRC media

Vehicular accidents are one of the deadliest safety hazards and accordingly an immense concern of individuals and governments. Although, a wide range of active autonomous safety systems, such as advanced driving assistance and lane keeping support, are introduced to facilitate safer driving experience, these stand-alone systems have limited capabilities in providing safety. Therefore, cooperative vehicular systems were proposed to fulfill more safety requirements. Most cooperative vehicle-to-vehicle safety applications require relative positioning accuracy of decimeter level with an update rate of at least 10 Hz. These requirements cannot be met via direct navigation or differential positioning techniques. This paper studies a cooperative vehicle platform that aims to facilitate real-time relative positioning (RRP) among adjacent vehicles. The developed system is capable of exchanging both GPS position solutions and raw observations using RTCM-104 format over vehicular dedicated short range communication (DSRC) links. Real-time kinematic (RTK) positioning technique is integrated into the system to enable RRP to be served as an embedded real-time warning system. The 5.9 GHz DSRC technology is adopted as the communication channel among road-side units (RSUs) and on-board units (OBUs) to distribute GPS corrections data received from a nearby reference station via the Internet using cellular technologies, by means of RSUs, as well as to exchange the vehicular real-time GPS raw observation data. Ultimately, each receiving vehicle calculates relative positions of its neighbors to attain a RRP map. A series of real-world data collection experiments was conducted to explore the synergies of both DSRC and positioning systems. The results demonstrate a significant enhancement in precision and availability of relative positioning at mobile vehicles.

Confucius Institutes and the rise of China: How the People's Republic of China uses its cultural institutions abroad to communicate with the world

This thesis examines the role of Confucius Institutes in China's cultural diplomacy. It analyses Confucius Institutes in Australia and Germany and explains the differences between Confucius Institutes and their international counterparts such as the British Council or the Goethe Institute. China's unique approach to establish these institutes as joint ventures has multiple implications not only for individual institutes and their partners involved, but more generally for the Chinese understanding of cultural diplomacy. The case of Confucius Institutes shows China's willingness to cooperate with foreigners in the context of cultural diplomacy, which, as with all such diplomatic endeavours, eventually serves national interests.

Academics and activists in the policy process : engagement with Australian media inquiries 2011-13

After its narrow re-election in June 2010, the Australian Labor government undertook a series of public inquiries into reform of Australian media, communications and copyright laws. One important driver of policy reform was the government’s commitment to building a National Broadband Network (NBN), and the implications this had for existing broadcasting and telecommunications policy, as it would constitute a major driver of convergence of media and communications access devices and content platforms. These inquiries included: the Convergence Review of media and communications legislation; the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) review of the National Classification Scheme; the Independent Media Inquiry (Finkelstein Review) into Media and Media Regulation; and the ALRC review of Copyright and the Digital Economy. One unusual feature of this review process, discussed in the paper, was the degree to which academics were involved in the process, not simply as providers of expert opinion, but as review chairs seconded from their universities. This paper considers the role played by activist groups in all of these inquiries and their relationship to the various participants in the inquiries, as well as the implications of academics being engaged in such inquiries, not simply as activist-scholars, but as those primarily responsible for delivering policy review outcomes. The latter brings to the forefront issues arising in from direct engagement with governments and state agencies themselves, which challenges traditional understandings of the academic community as “critical outsiders” towards such policy processes.

I’m friends with Louie the Fly, not Mortein : Conceptualising the new brand relationships on social media

Spokes-characters are ‘...animated beings or objects, created to promote a product, service or idea’ (Phillips 1996, p.155). They were first used in the late 1800s when they emerged as registered trademarks, but the use of spokes-characters for marketing communications has since grown, owing to their ability to remind consumers about a product, transfer positive associations to a brand, and give a corporate company a more ‘personal’ face (Callcott and Lee 1995). One example is the Michelin Man, who has served as spokes-character for Michelin tyres since 1898, after starting out in print advertising. Spokes-characters have become important brand representatives, no longer seen as simply entertaining cartoons featured in television and magazine advertisements. Corporations have now extended their use to interactive, social media platforms, where a consumer can be ‘friends’ with a spokes-character via Facebook, read their comments on the latest iPhone release through Twitter, and watch their family histories being documented on YouTube (see Figure 1). The interactions that consumers once had with two-dimensional spokes-characters have undergone significant transformation in the digital space. With spokes-character Facebook pages achieving significant numbers of ‘likes’ and interactions with consumers, one question concerns whether this strategy is creating characters that are more engaging than the brands they represent, and what impact this has on brand outcomes.

The university of the digital future : a reimagining based on the learning strategies of professionals in the digital media sectors

This article explores how universities might engage more effectively with the imperative to develop students’ 21st century skills for the information society, by examining learning challenges and strategies of successful digital media professionals. The findings support a significant body of literature, which argues that legacy university structures and pedagogical approaches are not conducive to optimal professional learning in the digital age. A model of one reimagining of the university is presented, which draws upon the learning preferences of the professionals in this study, as linked with extant theory relating to informal, situated, self-determined learning, communities of practice and personal learning environments.

The Arab Spring and social media audiences : English and Arabic Twitter users and their networks

Although popular media narratives about the role of social media in driving the events of the 2011 “Arab Spring” are likely to overstate the impact of Facebook and Twitter on these uprisings, it is nonetheless true that protests and unrest in countries from Tunisia to Syria generated a substantial amount of social media activity. On Twitter alone, several millions of tweets containing the hashtags #libya or #egypt were generated during 2011, both by directly affected citizens of these countries and by onlookers from further afield. What remains unclear, though, is the extent to which there was any direct interaction between these two groups (especially considering potential language barriers between them). Building on hashtag data sets gathered between January and November 2011, this article compares patterns of Twitter usage during the popular revolution in Egypt and the civil war in Libya. Using custom-made tools for processing “big data,” we examine the volume of tweets sent by English-, Arabic-, and mixed-language Twitter users over time and examine the networks of interaction (variously through @replying, retweeting, or both) between these groups as they developed and shifted over the course of these uprisings. Examining @reply and retweet traffic, we identify general patterns of information flow between the English- and Arabic-speaking sides of the Twittersphere and highlight the roles played by users bridging both language spheres.

Faster than the speed of print : reconciling ‘big data’ social media analysis and academic scholarship

The promise of ‘big data’ has generated a significant deal of interest in the development of new approaches to research in the humanities and social sciences, as well as a range of important critical interventions which warn of an unquestioned rush to ‘big data’. Drawing on the experiences made in developing innovative ‘big data’ approaches to social media research, this paper examines some of the repercussions for the scholarly research and publication practices of those researchers who do pursue the path of ‘big data’–centric investigation in their work. As researchers import the tools and methods of highly quantitative, statistical analysis from the ‘hard’ sciences into computational, digital humanities research, must they also subscribe to the language and assumptions underlying such ‘scientificity’? If so, how does this affect the choices made in gathering, processing, analysing, and disseminating the outcomes of digital humanities research? In particular, is there a need to rethink the forms and formats of publishing scholarly work in order to enable the rigorous scrutiny and replicability of research outcomes?

New media and the transformation of higher education

One set of public institutions that has seen growing discussion about the transformative impact of new media technologies has been universities. The higher education sector, historically one of the more venerable and stable areas of public life, is now the subject of almost continuous speculation about whether it can continue in its current form during the 21st century. Digital media technologies are often seen as being at the forefront of such changes. It has been widely noted that moves towards a knowledge economy generates ‘skills-biased technological change’, that places a premium upon higher education qualifications, and that this earnings gap remains despite the continuing increase in the number of university graduates. As the demand for higher education continues to grow worldwide, there are new discussions about whether technologically-mediated education through new forms such as Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are broadening access to quality learning, or severing the vital connection between teacher and student seen as integral to the learning process. This paper critically appraises such debates in the context of early 21st century higher education. It will discuss ten drivers of change in higher education, many of which are related to themes discussed elsewhere in this book, such as the impact of social media, globalization, and a knowledge economy. It will also consider the issues raised in navigating such developments from the perspective of the ‘Five P’s’: practical issues; personal issues; pedagogical issues; policy issues; and philosophical issues. It also includes a critical evaluation of MOOCs from the point of view of their educational qualities. It will conclude with the observation that while universities will continue to play a significant – and perhaps growing – role in the economy, society and culture, the issues raised about what Clayton Christensen and Henry Eyring term the ‘disruptive university’ (Christensen and Eyring 2011) are nonetheless pressing ones, and that cost and policy pressures in particular are likely to generate significant institutional transformations in higher education worldwide.

Mixing higher education teaching and learning with mobile devices and social media

The use of mobile devices and social media technologies are becoming all-pervasive in society: they are both transformative and constant. The high levels of mobile device ownership and increased access to social media technologies enables the potential for ‘anytime, anywhere’ cooperation and collaboration in education. While recent reports into emerging technologies in higher education predict an increase in the use of mobile devices and social media technologies (Horizon Report, 2013), there is a lack of theory-based research to indicate how these technologies can be most effectively harnessed to support and enhance student learning and what the impacts of these technologies are on both students and educators. In response to the need to understand how these technologies can be better embraced within higher education, this study investigated how first year education students used mobile devices and social media technologies. More specifically, the study identified how students spent most of their time when connected online with mobile devices and social media technologies and whether the online connected time engaged them in their learning or whether it was a distraction.

Social Media in the Media: How Australian Media Perceive Social Media as Political Tools

Social media are becoming increasingly integrated into political practices around the world. Politicians, citizens and journalists employ new media tools to support and supplement their political goals. This report examines the way in which social media are portrayed as political tools in Australian mainstream media in order to establish what the relations are between social media and mainstream media in political news reporting. Through the close content-analysis of 93 articles sampled from the years 2008, 2010 and 2012, we provide a longitudinal insight into how the perception by Australian journalists and news media organisations of social media as political tools has changed over time. As the mainstream media remain crucial in framing the public understanding of new technologies and practices, this enhances our understanding of the positioning of social media tools for political communication.